Kai and Sherman delve into the recent anarchist “Antifa” violence in Berkeley and around the country in the latest episode of “Shock Therapy,” presented by American Greatness. Read an excerpt of the conversation, below.
Kai Chang: Welcome back again for episode two of a phenomenally eventful week of shock therapy. I’m Kai Chang.
Sherman Forrest: I am Sherman Forest.
Chang: Wow. Right now as we’re speaking, our president Donald Trump is dropping some very, very explicit and pointed verbal bombs at an enemy that is thus far unnamed up until this very moment. What are your thoughts? What’s going on? I haven’t seen it yet, so you actually have a fresher response to this than I do.
Forrest: Well, it’s been a crazy few weeks and President Trump in Arizona right now is pulling no punches. He’s calling out Antifa, he’s calling out the media, he’s calling out all of the enemies who have been swarming around him and trying to tear him down. He’s giving them no corner. It’s pretty amazing. There’s a huge crowd there, who are cheering him on.
Chang: Yes. Of course, of course. Arizona is a very red state. We have a couple of mutual friends … Do we have anyone that we know that’s actually there right now. I don’t know.
Forrest: No, the folks I know in the Phoenix area and down in Tucson, none of them could actually make it to the rally today, which is a big shame. I wish I was there. It sounds like a high energy time.
Chang: It’s amazing, amazing. Looks … I’m definitely gonna have to catch up and view all the stuff after this show, because I’m definitely curious now. The rhetoric … it seems amazing after all this time, after beating them for an entire year, people still haven’t caught on to Trump’s strategy. It is really amazing to me how utterly oblivious his enemies are. They’re still treating it …
Forrest: Yeah.
Chang: Personally, a little bit of a black pill for me was the whole Afghanistan thing, there’s crazy boomers that are like, “Oh, it’s so exciting.” I’m cautiously … I’m disappointed, but I’m willing to see how that plays out, but I know the more important thing is right now what’s happening domestically, ’cause lots of happenings between Charlottesville, between Bannon resigning, I mean good Lord. Where do you want to start? Let’s go.
Forrest: Well, I think the most important development in current events with all of this overshadowing everything, Bannon, Afghanistan, all of that, has been over the past few weeks, the escalation in domestic political violence on the left in the United States.
Chang: Yes.
Forrest: Right here on our home territory. That’s very serious. It’s a really big deal in past discussions. You and I have talked about this at length and you know I think this is a serious escalation and a very problematic development for American politics.
Chang: Absolutely. Did you see this headline that came out on August 19th. The incredibly Orwellian headline that CNN put unmasked left Antifa movement activist seek peace through violence.
Forrest: Peace through violence, there you have it.
Chang: Peace through violence. Un-ironically-
Forrest: War is peace. Freedom is slavery, right?
Chang: Oh my God.
Forrest: I mean literally, Orwellian formulation we’re getting from the media.
Chang: Yes, and it went by an editor. It wasn’t some intern that just slapped on the website. Some editor green lit it. Someone thought of it, someone thought it was okay, then someone posted it. After the backlash, then everyone kind of backed off, “Okay, we’ll change the headlines.” If you go to that link, it’s something less provocative now, but holy smokes.
Forrest: Right.
Chang: But anyway, go ahead.
Forrest: Well, and all of this has been prompted by a number of events where there have been announcements for some sort of rally on the right, whether it’s Trump support rally, free speech rally, and even some of the less savory characters out there coming together, trying to join themselves on to these things and almost hijack them.
Chang: Mm-hmm (affirmative)
Forrest: When these events are happening, it is prompting left wing activist groups to show up in large numbers and throw down. They’re starting violence. They are street fighting in these situations. It’s a huge problem. The most egregious example we’ve had recently is of course Charlottesville, Virginia and the crazy violence that erupted around the unite the right free speech rally that took place there.
Chang: Don’t you mean the Nazi rally because … Oh, good Lord. It’s like … Yeah, go ahead.
Forrest: One guy with a swastika flag shows up and now the left is able to paint all of them as Nazis.
Chang: Exactly.
Forrest: David Duke and a couple of those KKK crackpots show up and now all of a sudden everybody there is a grand dragon in the KKK.
Chang: Of course.
Forrest: Well, of course, right? You give them the opportunity to paint you with that negative stuff, they’re gonna do it.
Chang: Right.
Forrest: A big part of that is … that is their strategy for these things. They’re hoping for that. That’s exactly what they’re trying to provoke, and provoke is the key word here.
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